Coalition to conduct review of Medicare Locals

The Coalition has pledged to conduct a review of Medicare Locals if elected, which could result in the closure of many of the primary health care hubs.

Speaking at the Australian Medical Association’s national conference in Sydney on Friday, shadow health minister
Peter Dutton
hinted the review could lead to a reduction in the number of centres rather than a wholesale abolition of the system.

“Our overall desire, not just Medicare Locals but across the portfolio, is in a very tight fiscal environment, to get every dollar back to frontline services," he said.

“We understand that there’s some good work, but there’s also a lot of question marks around what’s being done.’’

Mr Dutton acknowledged there were some areas of market failure in primary health care services, suggesting some Medicare Locals in rural and under-serviced areas could be kept under a Coalition government.

Backtracking alleged

Federal Health Minister
Tanya Plibersek
, also speaking at the conference, accused Mr Dutton of backtracking from an earlier position of seeking to abolish Medicare Locals.

“This is a change from what Peter Dutton was saying a few months ago, that he was going to kill Medicare Locals stone dead. I’m pleased to see he has reversed his initial decision, which was to kill them off without ever investigating what they do," Ms Plibersek said.

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“The shame of this is if this report is just a delay to killing Medicare Locals off . . . out beyond this election." that Medicare Locals have finished."

The government introduced Medicare Locals in 2010 as a means to ­co-ordinate primary health care services and practitioners such as GPs, practice nurses and allied health providers. The 61 operational centres employ 3000 people and cost the government $291 million over four years to ­establish.

There has been hostility towards Medicare Locals from some doctors who argue the federal government is duplicating services which already exist and introducing unnecessary competition in primary health care services.

Targeting waste in the system

“We don’t want to see waste in the system, we don’t want to see bureaucracies that are unnecessary, the review has to look carefully at where [Medicare Locals] value-add," AMA president
Dr Steve Hambleton
said.

“We need to make sure we get an outcome that is efficient and doesn’t waste money."

Greens health spokesman Dr
­Richard di Natale
, a former GP, said he did not believe the Coalition’s review would be an honest one. “That sounds like code for ‘we’re going to abolish them’. Which would be very short-sighted."

Mr Dutton also confirmed the ­Coalition’s position that it would repeal means-testing of the private health insurance rebate if it were elected.

There had been speculation the ­Coalition’s position had changed, when shadow treasurer
Joe Hockey
said last week the government would have to keep the savings “to build a stronger Australia".